Tracks News - In this section you'll find news from cities around the country as well as interviews and general reporting on issues. It might be from a newspaper or a blog, but it counts as news. The Chatter, commentary and opposition articles will be found towards the bottom.

TRANSPORT

Shanghai: Blueprint of City's First BRT System

Shanghai Daily

SHANGHAI will start to build its first Bus Rapid Transit, or BRT system, in Fengxian, Minhang and Pudong districts to ease traffic congestion and better assist transport for residents in the areas, according to the city's planning and land administrative bureau...Read On

Kansas City: Bus Backers Worry About Siphoned Funds

Kansas City Star

Kansas City has made no secret that it would pitch in $2 million per year for the downtown streetcars. Now it's clear where that money is likely to come from: The bus system...Read On

Research: Community Design Crashes w Older Residents

Journal of Planning Education and Research (Abstract)

This study uses negative binomial regression models to understand how urban form may affect total and KSI (killed or seriously injured) crashes involving drivers and pedestrians aged seventy-five and older...Read On

Research: Impact of Street Sweeping on Auto Usage

Journal of Planning Education and Research (Abstract)

This article explores the concept of "public commons" and its relationship with travel decisions under a unique setting: street cleaning in the New York City area...Read On

International: Portugal Switching HSR Plan to Freight

The Portugal News Online

Portugal's government has changed its mind within the space of two days, saying today that plans to build a network of high-speed passenger rail lines has been cancelled and will not be revived, with some of the European Union subsidies for the project to be switched into freight transport...Read On

National: City Parking Should be Way More Expensive

Time Magazine

Here's an idea that'll probably be about as popular with drivers as 20 blocks of gridlock traffic...Read On

URBANISM | HOUSING | CITIES | ENVIRONMENT

Dallas: Richardson, Plano Thinking TOD

Dallas Morning News

For years, cars and highways have driven the growth of suburban Richardson and Plano. Public transit has been a small aside, with less than 3 percent of the cities' residents taking trains or buses to work...Read On

New Jersey: Extreme Suburbia Lit By Nature

New York Times

Driving through Millstone, one will stop for a crossing deer - or maybe even a horse - before having to worry about a traffic light. That's because this town of 37 square miles doesn't have any, or much in the way of streetlights, either...Read On

Twin Cities: Sprawl Affects Inner Ring Burbs Too

Minneapolis Star Tribune

A U of M researcher finds that many of the characteristics of "urban sprawl" are showing up closer to central-city cores, not just where cornfields are transformed into housing...Read On

Jeff Wood, Reconnecting America's New Media Director and Chief Cartographer, collects news stories and blog posts about transit and transit-oriented development from around the country and posts them at TheDirectTransfer.com. Jeff then takes the top 10 articles in each of five categories and sends that out as Other Side of the Tracks email newsletter. The content of that email is then posted here.